Etched in Clay
Page 1
Etched in Clay is true to the known facts of Dave’s life, although there are some discrepancies among sources about dates and details. The story is a narrative biography, told in verse, with some imagined scenes, people, thoughts, and dialogue. These parts of the story are dramatic extensions of historically documented events and interactions. While the language used by both white characters and enslaved African American characters in nineteenth-century South Carolina has been standardized for modern readers, Dave’s inscriptions are included in their original form.
Dave’s inscriptions from CAROLINA CLAY: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE SLAVE POTTER DAVE by Leonard Todd. Copyright © 2008 by Leonard Todd. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Text and illustrations copyright © 2013 by Andrea Cheng
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc., 95 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
leeandlow.com
Manufactured in the United States of America by Worzalla Publishing Company, November 2012
Book design by Christy Hale
Book production by The Kids at Our House
The text is set in Book Antigua
The illustrations are rendered as woodcuts
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cheng, Andrea.
Etched in clay : the life of Dave, enslaved potter and poet / Andrea Cheng ; woodcuts by the author. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: “The life of Dave, an enslaved potter who inscribed his works with sayings and poems in spite of South Carolina’s slave anti-literacy laws in the years leading up to the Civil War. Includes afterword, author’s note, and sources”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-60060-451-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-60060-893-3 (e-book)
1. Dave, fl. 1834-1864—Juvenile literature. 2. African American potters—Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. African American poet—Biography—Juvenile literature. 4. Slaves—South Carolina—Biography—Juvenile literature. [1. Dave, fl. 1834-1864. 2. African American potters. 3. African American poets. 4. Slaves—South Carolina.] I. Title.
NK4210.D247C54 2012
738.092—dc23 [B] 2012027280
To Ann
Contents
Map
Introduction
Main Narrators and Characters
Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory
Pottersville Partners
Augusta Auction
Another Name
Clay and Hope
Pottery Lesson
Dangerous Talent
Jumping the Broomstick
You Should Be Grateful
My Eliza
That Man Is Mine
I Beg You
Departure
Brilliant Glazes
Loading the Furnace
Firing Time
What’s Gotten into That Boy?
That’s My Jar
The Scriptures
Our Conscience
The Blue Back Speller
Tell the World
The Edgefield Hive
Real Paper, Real Ink
Education
A New Husband
Submissionists
Speaking Out
Words and Verses
Death of Harvey Drake
Lord, Help Us
Purchase
Missing Dave
Second Nature
Nat Turner
End Slave Literacy
Etched in Clay
A Poem!
Anti-Literacy Law
Stop That Foolishness
Delivery
On the Train Tracks
Turning, Turning
Letter to Dave
Home Again
On to Louisiana
Why?
A Helper
Carving Words
Our Legacy
Horse Creek
A Loan
Luck Is Here
I Made This Jar
A Master Potter
This Jar Is Bare
To Lewis Miles
Write No More
The Choice Is Mine
Stubborn
Silence
My Father’s Death
For Sale
Sold Again
A High Price
Get to Work!
Wait for Night
Stony Bluff
Homecoming
A Joke
Good Times
Where Is My Family?
Our Fortune
Jar of Riches
Great and Noble Jar
War
Repentance
The End Is Near
Black in Blue
What Did I Expect?
A New Name
To a Friend
Little David
Afterword
Edgefield Pottery
Dave’s Inscriptions
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Author’s Sources
Map
This map shows the relative locations of places important in Dave’s life. Stony Bluff, which was in the vicinity of Pottersville and Horse Creek, is not indicated. Its location is known only to a few researchers, and the precise spot has not been revealed.
Introduction
Historical records show that the first documentation of ownership of an enslaved young man known as Dave is a mortgage agreement dated June 13, 1818. This agreement indicates that Dave was about seventeen years old and was owned by Harvey Drake. Most likely, Drake purchased Dave at a slave auction in Augusta, Georgia, prior to 1818 and took him to Pottersville, a village outside Edgefield, South Carolina, where Drake and his uncles—the Landrum brothers—had a stoneware pottery business. Eventually Dave was taught how to make pots, jugs, and jars on a potter’s wheel; fire them; and glaze them using the Landrums’ famous alkaline glazes. Soon Dave became one of the best potters in the Edgefield district. Here is his inspiring story.
Main Narrators and Characters
DR. ABNER LANDRUM (1785–1859)
Around 1810, with his brother Amos, founded Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory, a pottery works located outside the town of Edgefield, South Carolina; founder of a newspaper called The Edgefield Hive.
HARVEY DRAKE (1796–1832)
Nephew of Dr. Abner Landrum and partner in Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory; first known owner of Dave, from sometime before 1818 until 1832.
DAVE (LATER NAMED DAVID DRAKE) (1801–LATE 1870S)
Enslaved man, country born (born in the United States); by age seventeen owned by Harvey Drake; later sold several times to various members of Drake’s extended family over the next fifty years.
ELIZA (1799–DEATH DATE UNKNOWN)
Enslaved woman, possibly Dave’s first wife.
SARAH DRAKE (BIRTH AND DEATH DATES UNKNOWN)
Wife of Harvey Drake; deeply spiritual member of the Edgefield Village Baptist Church.
LYDIA (BIRTH AND DEATH DATES UNKNOWN)
Enslaved woman, possibly Dave’s second wife; mother of two boys, John and George.
NULLIFIER
Person who opposed the Union (the United States government) and felt that each state had the right to nullify, or veto, any measure that the U.S. government tried to impose on it.
REUBEN DRAKE (1800–SOMETIME IN THE 1850S)
Brother of Harvey Drake; purchased Dave after Harvey’s death and owned Dave in Pottersville until about 1836.
HENRY SIMKINS (BIRTH AND DEATH DATES UNKNOWN)
Enslaved man who worked with Dave at the pottery works in Pottersville, Horse Creek, and Stony Bluff.
REV. JOHN LANDRUM (1765–1846)
Brother of Dr. Abner Landrum and Amos Landrum; purchased Dave to work at his pottery works in Horse Creek; owned Dave from about 1836 until 1846.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN LANDRUM (1811–1880)
Son of Rev. John Landrum and brother of Mary Landrum Miles; built his own pottery works in another part of Horse Creek and owned Dave from 1847 until about 1849.
MARY LANDRUM MILES (1812–1877)
Daughter of Rev. John Landrum and wife of Lewis Miles.
LEWIS MILES (1808–1869)
Son-in-law of Rev. John Landrum and husband of Mary Landrum Miles; Rev. Landrum lent him Dave to work at his own pottery works in Horse Creek; later built a pottery works in Stony Bluff and owned Dave from about 1849 until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory
DR. ABNER LANDRUM, 1810
Near Edgefield I found
the perfect place.
The forest is thick
with maples and oaks.
Streams run like veins
through the South Carolina clay,
smooth and deep red
with pockets of white.
Someday soon
our slaves will stand
knee-deep in the water,
digging clay
from the banks
while the wagon drivers wait.
We’ll have one strong mule
at the mill
to turn the post
and grind the clay,
and a turning house
with potter’s wheels.
We’ll stoke up the fire
in our furnace
and bake our pots hot
to melt the glaze.
Should we call ourselves
Landrum Brothers Pottery?
No, too ordinary
for the finest jugs and jars
in all the land!
Allow me to introduce
our soon-to-be
world-famous
Pottersville Stoneware Manufactory.
Pottersville Partners
DR. ABNER LANDRUM, 1814
My older brother Amos
is a salesman
through and through,
but his love of drink
and the ladies
distracts him from
our business.
Let me also ask my nephew
Harvey Drake
to lend a hand.
Weak of body
but sound of mind,
he is a thoughtful man,
and prudent too.
Augusta Auction
HARVEY DRAKE, 1815
My uncle did not send me to the market
for peaches or green beans or squash.
I make my way to the auction block
crowded with people,
watching.
The Negro mothers wail
while their children cling to them
like melons to their vines.
One slave stands alone,
young but not a child,
strong enough to haul the clay
up the slippery, steep banks
of the stream.
“See here, Young Master,”
shouts the auctioneer.
“He’s only six hundred dollars,
country born,
good teeth,
straight back.
Come see for yourself.”
I could get two for that price,
three hundred each.
“Can you work, boy?” I ask.
“Yes, Master,
I sure can work.”
There’s intelligence in those eyes,
considering.
“Four hundred is all I have,”
I tell the auctioneer.
“Five hundred firm,” he insists.
Others are watching
to see what I’ll do.
That boy stares at me,
waiting
in the Georgia sun
while our clay is washing downstream
fast as water runs.
“Boy,” I say,
“you come with me.”
Another Name
DAVE, 1815
Master says, “Dave—
that suits you.
That’s your name.”
He can call me
whatever he pleases,
Tom or John or Will or Dave,
no matter.
I had another name once.
I can’t remember the sound of it;
but I know the voice,
smooth and soft,
that whispered it
close to my ear
in the still night.
And then
my mother was gone.
Clay and Hope
DAVE, 1817
The water’s cold;
my hands are ice,
even in spring.
“Dig it out now, Dave.
You can carry more clay
than that,”
Master Drake says.
Every day I dig,
I lift,
I haul,
I hope
for something else
tomorrow.
Pottery Lesson
DAVE, 1819
I sit by the door
of the turning house
and watch Master Drake
form our clay
into a jar,
wide in the middle,
narrow on top,
his hands steady
while he kicks the wheel
at the bottom,
making the upper wheel turn
faster and faster.
He adds water,
then pulls up the sides
of the jar,
shaping and trimming—
like magic.
“Are you staring at me, Dave?”
“No, Master,” I say.
“Do you want to learn
to turn a pot?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Get up here, boy.”
“Right now?” I ask.
“I’m waiting,” he says.
I scramble to my feet.
“Balance your weight,
now kick the bottom wheel
and center the mound.
Keep that wheel spinning.
You got it, boy.
Put your thumb in the middle
and squeeze.”
In my hands
the clay comes to life,
growing so quick,
like a weed in the rain.
Master Drake is watching.
Then he says,
“Looks like
you may have talent, Dave.”
My heart starts beating so fast
I can hardly breathe.
Slow and steady,
I draw that jar right up.
Dangerous Talent
HARVEY DRAKE, 1820
; Others take six months
to learn to center
a mound on the wheel,
but in just two weeks,
Dave gets the feel
of the clay.
He pins his elbows
to his sides,
then cups his hands
to hold the clay.
Knuckle on the outside,
he brings up the walls
of a gallon jar
with the lip turned out
just right.
Then I show him
how to roll thick handles
and mount them
on the sides.
Dave is smiling
like I gave him gold.
And I wonder,
Is there danger in teaching
this slave boy so much?
Will he forget his place?
Jumping the Broomstick
ELIZA, 1820
“What’s the matter, Eliza?”
Master Drake asks.
“Our Dave isn’t good enough
for you to marry?”
He’s younger than I like,
only nineteen,
and skinny too;
but with that wheel,
he can turn out a jar
faster than I can wash it.
He’s kind too,
except on rare occasions,
when he drinks.
I put on my dress,
blue as the sky,
with white dots like cotton
ripe in the fields.
Dave is standing there
in black pants
and white shirt.
We jump the broomstick,
and the minister says
we’ll be together
“till death or distance
do you part.”
“Sweet Eliza,”
Dave whispers.
He kisses me
on the cheek,
and I take his hand.
You Should Be Grateful
HARVEY DRAKE, 1821
She ought to be glad